Buy your way into Patterson's next novel

James Patterson, the world's highest-paid author. In the past three years, he has sold more books than any other author (according to Bookscan), and in total, James's books have sold an estimated 260 million copies worldwide. Since 2006, one out of every seventeen hardcover fiction books sold was a Patterson title.

James Patterson, the world's highest-paid author. In the past three years, he has sold more books than any other author (according to Bookscan), and in total, James's books have sold an estimated 260 million

Houston is at the top of author Larry McMurtry's list of best Texas cities.

Houston is at the top of author Larry McMurtry's list of best Texas cities.

Photo: Michael Paulsen, Staff

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The downtown Houston skyline is seen in an aerial view with the Toyota Center, George R. Brown Convention Center, and Minute Maid Park seen at right, on Friday, May 25, 2012, in Houston. ( Smiley N. Pool / Houston Chronicle )

The downtown Houston skyline is seen in an aerial view with the Toyota Center, George R. Brown Convention Center, and Minute Maid Park seen at right, on Friday, May 25, 2012, in Houston. ( Smiley N. Pool /

Tony Diaz teaches a Mexican American Literature class at Houston Community College Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, in Houston. When Diaz heard that Tucson schools were forced to dismantle a popular Mexican American studies program and yank Hispanic history books from classrooms, he started organizing a protest. He invented a word to describe his new mission: Librotraficante - or book trafficker. "They want to erase our literature, history and our culture. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

Tony Diaz teaches a Mexican American Literature class at Houston Community College Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, in Houston. When Diaz heard that Tucson schools were forced to dismantle a popular Mexican American

The prolific novelist and the world's highest paid author - who earned $94 million in 2011-12 according to Forbes - will write one reader's name into his next book.

For a price and a cause.

Joining forces with the National Kidney Foundation and global charity auction site Charitybuzz.com, Patterson is auctioning the chance for a reader to have a character named after him or her. And here's the plot twist: Patterson gets to decide if the character is a hero or a villain.

Bidding is open through Feb. 11 at charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/334730. It's an odd gift that might make a good Valentine's Day present for a Patterson fan. Though it ain't cheap. At the time of this writing, bidding was close to the $8,000 mark.

Patterson, who uses co-authors to churn out a handful of new titles every year, has written 107 books, 83 of which became best-sellers. That's a Guinness World Record.

Houston: Larry McMurtry's Paris. The compliments just keep comin', don't they? Last summer, Forbes put Houston at the top of its list of America's coolest cities to live in, thanks to job growth, housing development, food and culture in the Lone Star state.

Earlier this year, Houston ranked No. 7 on the New York Times list of the top 46 places to go IN THE WORLD, besting all other U.S. cities.

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Books

And now, one of the state's beloved literary sons is slinging Houston's praises around the pages of Texas Monthly. As a young man, Larry McMurtry writes, "Houston was more or less my Paris, or such Paris as I had, and I still think of Rice University as my intellectual home. Every time I go there I meet the city limits sign fifty miles farther out."

Houston tops McMurtry's list of Texas cities, while Dallas languishes at the bottom. McMurtry, author of "Lonesome Dove," "The Last Picture Show" and many other novels and screenplays, deems Dallas "a second-rate city that wishes it were first-rate."

Buzzy books, Texas authors and activists. But let's not get too down on Dallas. On Tuesday, Domy Books (1709 Westheimer) welcomes Dallas writer Ben Fountain, a National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for his 2012 novel "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk." Fountain's book follows a squad of war heroes on a media tour to drum up support for the Iraq War. Around 6:30 p.m., preceding the author's appearance: a screening of "Super Bowl Parking Lot," a dark, 10-minute documentary about the 2011 Super Bowl.

And speaking of which, Super Bowl XLVII is two days away as I write this column, but it'll be recent history by the time the column runs. All I can say is, Go Ravens! I always root for teams named after poems.

Domingo Martinez, yet another Texas writer and 2012 National Book Award finalist, visits Houston on Wednesday to read from his memoir, "The Boy Kings of Texas," which chronicles his journey from a tough Texas border town to Seattle's "wet wilderness of civility." Martinez will appear at Casa Ramirez, 241 W. 19th, in a 6 p.m. program that includes readings from Huizache, a new journal from the Center for Mexican American Literature and Culture at the University of Houston-Victoria. The second issue of Huizache chronicles the exploits of the Librotraficante [book trafficker] Movement, founded in Houston by local author and activist Tony Diaz to defy the prohibition of a Mexican American Studies program in some Arizona schools. Last month, Librotraficante won the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award, given by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for opposing the censorship of ethnic and cultural studies and delivering banned books to underground libraries around the country. Diaz will appear with Martinez and several other writers on Wednesday.